Kicking Off Banned Books Week

Kicking Off Banned Books Week: Celebrating the Freedom to Read
September 26, 2005

By Anna Weinberg

[The Book Standard marks Banned Books Week 2005 (Sept. 24 through Oct. 1) with a series of articles exploring the issue. Check back all week for more.]

Last April, the Board of Education in Limestone County, Ala., opted to ban Chris Crutcher'sWhale Talk from all its school libraries. In Crutcher's book, a young, biracial girl undergoes a therapy session in which she acts out the role of her racist stepfather, who often calls her, among other things, a "stupid black bitch." A parent of a local high-school student filed a complaint, on the grounds that, though the book "is talking about teamwork and dealing with racism," students who read the book "would be more likely to use the words every day." Upon consideration, a review committee of parents and staff, along with the school superintendent, recommended that it be kept in the school. The school board, however, overruled them, voting instead to ban it. "The truth is, we're not living in an age that is markedly more enlightened than it was 30-40 years ago," says Michael Gorman, president of the American Library Association. Story continues below ↓

When she heard about the book-banning in Limestone County, Miranda Ball, director of Lawrence County Library, which serves 34,000 people in nearby Moulton, Ala., decided on the perfect theme for her teen summer-reading group: banned books. For her "Readiculous" program, she gathered a group of teens and 20-somethings, stocked up on To Kill a Mockingbird, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, J.K. Rowling's oeuvre and other commonly banned books, and had kids take their pick. "Then we would all talk about why the book was banned?-and if the kids thought it should be banned," says Ball. "None of the kids thought their book should be banned. They all said ?'That's stupid.' "

Stupid or not, there were 547 reports of banned or challenged books in 2004, according to the ALA (a somewhat unreliable figure, since the organization estimates that only about one in four challenges is reported). Most often initiated in school libraries or small rural libraries, by concerned parents, the charges are usually based on the grounds that the books contain offensive language, are sexually explicit, are unsuited for the intended age group or are excessively violent. To raise awareness of the number of books that are challenged each year, the ALA is observing its 23rd annual "Banned Books Week?-Celebrating the Freedom to Read," from Sept. 24 to Oct. 1. Sponsored by the American Booksellers Association, the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression, the ALA, the Association of American Publishers, the American Society of Journalists and Authors and the National Association of College Stores, the festival has inspired other events around the country. The Seattle Public Library is tying the celebration to its own September project, a month-long series of speakers, with plays and discussions focusing on democracy, citizenship and free speech. The Minneapolis Public Library system is creating displays of books that have been banned or challenged, and making it a hot topic on their website by providing info on banned books and access to any of them in their collection. And Miranda Ball has invited Crutcher himself to speak before groups of teens about censorship and intellectual freedom. So many kids are signed up that organizers have moved the event to a venue larger than the library.

"People are amazed to hear that a school board would ban Catcher in the Rye or Of Mice and Men," says Gorman. "Most parents worry about people not reading, not what they're reading. The idea that books are being banned is sort of shocking to people."

It's no longer shocking to author Nancy Garden, whose book Annie on my Mind was number 48 on the ALA's list of the 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1990 to 2000. Back in 1993, Annie, the story of a romance between two young lesbians, was burned on the steps of the Kansas City School Board building. "I turned numb when I heard about it," says Garden. "I thought, ?'Nazis burn books, we don't.' " The book was challenged in school libraries around the country over the years, but in 1994 a group of students in Olathe, Kan., decided they weren't going to take the removal of the book from their school shelves lying down. They filed a First Amendment lawsuit against the school board. A year later, they won.

"People objected to Annie because it showed a loving relationship between two young women. It made it seem like homosexuality was okay," says Garden. "And listening to the people who objected, I realized that . . . some of these people are genuinely scared that books can hurt, and that their children, if they read about homosexuality in a positive way, will go out and try it."

Garden's case is not unusual. Of the ten most challenged books of 2004, three were called out because of homosexual content, the highest number in a decade. And although the 87 challenges from 2000 to 2003 that were initiated on the grounds of homosexuality is a small fraction overall for those three years, that's 12 more than the previous decade saw.

Gorman says he's particularly troubled by the increasing number of challenges based on homosexual themes. "One of the great things that public libraries do?-for teenagers in particular?-is provide them with knowledge and information that they are too constrained to seek elsewhere," he says. "There are lots of things that people won't discuss with their families and teachers. They will discuss them with their peers, but God knows what they get from them. Books that tell troubled teens that they're not alone do a great service, and I hate to think they're losing that."

For her part, Ball believes difficult reading can be good for kids. Maya Angelou's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings was challenged in her Alabama community in the '90s. "It got ugly," says Ball. "The book was challenged because it has lots of racial stuff in it, and lots of sexual stuff. Would I want an eighth grader reading that book? Absolutely not. But an 11th-grader or a 12th-grader? Yes. They need to know that this woman went through this and [that] now she's a poet laureate."

"Banned Books Week is about upholding a fundamental American value," says Gorman. "We don't believe in suppressing other peoples' right to read. I'm a university librarian in a large-ish institution, so it's very easy for me. The whole institution believes in access of information and freedom of inquiry. People working in a small rural library, where the most challenges are issued, can be very isolated. And we tend to want them to do the whole Gregory Peck act and stand up and defy their challengers. The dilemma is a lot more complicated. Banned Books Week says to those rural librarians, ?'You're not alone.' "

Garden sympathizes with the librarians facing those challenges, too, and considers a book challenge a good time to talk. "Librarians have to listen to the objections that people have to books," says Garden. "But I think it's important to say things like, ?'Well, look, we can't remove this stuff, but if you want to tell us materials that you would like us to put in the library, which represent your viewpoint, we can put those in, too.' "

Conversation is often a good starting point for Ball, who has intervened when kids check out books she thinks are too advanced for them?-when a ten-year-old came to her with Stephen King's Carrie, Ball explained to her that the book might be too advanced. "So then she wanted to read Anne Rice, and I said ?'I don't think you want to read that either, honey,' " says Ball. "But I told her, ?'If you want to get it out, then go ahead.' "

"I am a conservative Christian, and I have a two-year-old daughter, and there are things I won't want her reading. But I don't want anyone else telling me what she can read," says Ball. "And I'm sure not going to tell other people what they can read."